“I felt like I didn’t get a fair trial because the jury was able to read that newspaper that had my convictions inside of it,” Kolby Martin, 28, a reputed South End gang member known as “Holly G,” told the judge. “I never took the stand myself so I feel like that was a way that someone could get in touch with the news reporter printing certain stuff and the newspaper could reach out to the jury — secretly — without saying it in court.”

He was convicted of firing at a would-be victim on Aug. 24 in West Hill while riding in a 2004 Chevy Trail Blazer. Martin open-fired, unaware that a city police car was in pursuit with its surveillance camera rolling. Prosecutors had incriminating ballistics evidence — and his DNA was found on the trigger area of one the two guns he was toting.

Martin also asked acting Supreme Court Justice Dan Lamont to adjourn his sentencing so he could see his newborn baby — a request denied after the prosecutor noted the defendant’s frequent habit of asking for delays in court.